Sunday is traditionally the mini-campaign day and I put on A Stargate Too Far - details of the scenario can be found here.

With 9 players we set up 4 tables and drew cards to see what teams we were in

Table 1

Table 2

Table 3

Table 4

The Teams
North Team was Graham & Steve from Caerphilly with EuroFeds, Mark with Neo-Soviets, Mike with Eldritch and I ran out my Pax Arcs again. We deployed the Eldritch on Table 1, the Neo-Soviets on Table 2 and the EuroFeds and Pax Arcs on Table 4

South Team was Colin with a Star Wars army, Gordon with MacGregor Clan and Paul and Steve with Kraytonians. The MacGregor clan deployed on Table 1, Star Wars on Table 2 and the Kray Twins on Table 3.

Eldritch forces take a hammering

MacGregors activate the Iris on Gate 1S

EuroFed come to the rescue

The Kray Twins

Table 1
Initially this was Northern Eldritch against Southern MacGregors who were both pretty cagey until the Southern Kray Twins turned up from Table 3 and started shooting the Eldritch to pieces. Northern EuroFeds came to the aid but the Krays shot them up as well. The Eldritch reached break point but refused to break and put up an astounding rearguard with a few infantry before teleporting to the security of Table 4. Therefore Table 1 was left under the control of the Southern Team

Pax Arcs teleport into the Star War force

Pax Arcs wish they hadn't

EuroFed teleport to the rescue

Star Wars close in for the kill

Table 2
As the Southern Star Wars force was mainly infantry nothing happened until half the Northern Pax Arc force teleported into the Star Wars army to help the Northen Neo-Soviets. This was a big mistake on the part of the Pax Arcs as they were close assaulted by the Star Wars force and almost broken. The EuroFeds teleported in from Table 1 to help the Pax Arcs but the engagement ground to a halt leaving Table 2 contested.

Table 3
Only the Southern Kray Twins deployed to this table. As the Northern force was engaged elsewhere no combat took place here

Table 4
As this was only occupied by Northern Forces and with one of the Stargates locked down with an Iris and the other defended by Pax Arcs, EuroFeds and Eldritch this became a no-go area for Southern forces.

Outcome
Eventually a stalemate occurred as neither side could risk an assault on the other so we called time on it and counted up the Victory Points

Conclusions
An enjoyable game with lots of choices to make about where to deploy, where to teleport to and when to use the Irises

We felt that having an odd number of tables would have been better as stalemate could have been avoided.

We also considered using more smaller tables, maybe 1 per player, with one Stargate per table and recycling the Chance Cards as they disappeared very quickly. The Stargate Irises made defending tables easy although only 3 were rolled on

You can never have enough FWC
We did have time to fit in a final one on one game using the forces from the Stargate game. My Pax Arcs faced off Gordon's MacGregor Clan on Table 1.

Playing on his evil but lovely hedgrowed terrain was a nightmare compounded by me rolling a blunder that took reduced my HQ from CV9 to CV6 for the whole game. Gordon took me apart with his flamethrowers.

I was glad to see the sun set on this game.

Thoughts on the weekend
Another excellent Bootcamp, great players, armies, terrain and scenarios and hardly any recrimination phases.

FWC is a wonderful set of rules but even after several years of playing it there is still a lot that is open to interpretation and, in my opinion, rules support from the author is minimal at best.

My thanks to all who played and special thanks to Shaun at Dreamholme for casting up the Stargates. I've had hours of enjoyment watching the Stargate film and TV Series for historical research so...

This scenario is based on the Stargate film and TV series. Stargates have been discovered on several planets and a war is being fought to control them and destroy the enemy.

Scenario
There are two teams of players - North and South
Ideally 6 players are required
Each player controls a battle group
The game finishes when one side has over half of its battle groups broken

Victory Points

1 per enemy battle group broken

1 per 2 Stargate codes collected

1 per table controlled ie no unbroken enemy battle groups on table

Terrain

For every 2 players there is 1 table

Each table plays at it's own speed

Each table has 2 stargates - each located 18" in from the short end of the table and two buildings in the centre of the table there are also 6 "Chance cards" on each table – these can be good or bad

Stargates allow transportation to other tables by moving units through the gate - the transport codes are not known - they can be obtained from the buildings in the centre of the table - each building contains the code to two Stargates on other tables

Not knowing the codes does not stop players using the gates - it just means they will be randomly relocated

Stargates are referenced by Table and Location ie Stargate 2N is the northern gate on table 2

3 Tables

Code To Stargates

4 Tables

Code To Stargates

Table 1

Table 2N & 3S

Table 1

Table 2N & 3S

Table 2

Table 1N & 3N

Table 2

Table 3N & 4S

Table 3

Table 1S & 2S

Table 3

Table 4N & 1S

Table 4

Table 1N & 2S

Forces

Each player has either 1500 pt Advanced, 1650 pts contemporary or 1800 pts Primitive forces

The following are not allowed: massives, orbital strikes, off-table artillery or airstrikes or ambushes

Reserves can not be sent through the Stargate - they must be deployed on table in order to use a Stargate

Gunships are allowed but they must be pre-allocated to a table and can never leave it

Command units can be pimped by 1 CV

Initial Deployment

Initial Deployment is Static along the short edge of the table

North team deploy on the northern edge and South team deploy on the southern edge

Upto 2 Battlegroups can be deployed on a single table

Stargate Movement

A command unit must start on the Stargate. In the initiative phase, the codes (or a random number) are generated and the Stargate activates. The command unit is then moved to the exit portal on another table. This is the last action in the Initiative phase.

Units that wish to use the Stargate must be within 10cm of the gate and unsupressed

The commander can then make a Teleport Deployment order back through to the entry point and if successful this counts as a normal Teleport Deployment from the exit Stargate. Continue with normal orders until CV fails. Recce may move independently as normal.

A Stargate can only be used by one Command unit per turn

Teleport Blunders are per the book except that a score of 5 or 6 relocates the force to a random Stargate

A Stargate closes immediately after the Teleport Deployment

Chance Cards

Each table has 6 Chance cards placed randomly

When a Unit moves over a Chance Card roll a D6

Roll

Event

1

Bugs
The searching unit is ambushed by 3+d6 Bugs - no defensive fire is allowed

2

Booby Trap
The searching unit suffers D6 Attacks - treat unit as in the open - this overrides any special defensive capabilities ie recce

3

Horrors
Whatever was there freaked out the searching unit - roll a D3 and a direction dice. The unit recoils in the given direction for that many full moves immediately and is suppressed

4

Satellite Station
The nearest command unit gets a D3 CV Bonus for the next turn

5

Tech Heads or Warriors
A colony of Tech Heads or Warriors live here. Roll D6 - on anything but a 1 a destroyed unit is brought back to life next to the nearest command unit. If you do not have a destroyed unit then nothing happens

6

Stargate Iris Code
This code allows a command unit to activate the Iris on one of the 2 Stargates on this table. Roll randomly to decide. Activating the Iris stops travel through the gate. To activate or deactive the Iris a command unit must be adjacent to the gate in the initiative phase

Monday, 2 June 2014

The Fifth FWC Bootcamp, the world's premier (only) organised gaming weekend for 6mm Future War Commander, took place on 31st May and 1st June 2014 at the Tudor Arms, Slimbridge. Gloucestershire.

On the Saturday there were 6 players, Gordon, Graham, Mark, Paul, Steve and myself.

Mad Max
We started off with a relaxing game of Mad Max. 6 players, 1000 points each with no massives, aircraft or off-board artillery. The various factions were Pax Acardian, Khazari, Eldritch (not-Eldar), Hunter-Scavengers (not-Orks or Porks as they all ride round on pigs!) and two Kraytonians - one hi-tech and one low-tech.

The object of Mad Max is to break your opponents' force - 1 Victory point is awarded for each force you break. Players who are broken return with a fresh force. To add spice to this game each player had 6 fuel units. Each successful command roll uses up a fuel unit and when you run out of fuel your CV drops by 1.

There were 4 refuelling tanks on the board. If a command unit started the turn adjacent to a fuel tank then the force could replenish up to 6 fuel units.

My Pax Arcs fond themselves alone in one half of the table as ...

...the 2 Kraytonians attacked the Eldritch ...

and the Porks went toe-to-toe with the Khazari.

Loads of Khazari, Eldritch, Porks and Kraytonians ended up dying with the honours going to Gordon's low-tech Kraytonians

Big Boys
The second game, Big Boys, was put together by Paul. This scenario has Massive units doing orbital drops onto the table which wrecks their shield generators.

There are several shield generators on the table which the Massive units can recharge from. Victory points are awarded for occupying the mine in the middle of the table and destroying opponents.

Pax Arc

Space Marines

Each force is 1000 points but the force must include a Massive unit with supporting troops and you don't get many of them after buying a Massive unit.

Porks

Khazari

Eldritch

A Bug walker overwhelmed by Khazari

This was an entertaining scenario as my Pax Arcs were pushed past break point by the Eldritch walker in Turn 1 but then refused to break and entered the mine to take on Bugs and Porks

I believe that Graham's Eldritch won the Big Boy scenario merely by standing still and shooting everything in sight. More info on Paul's scenario can be found hereFrondula VI: Show and Kill
The final game of the day was Frondula VI: Show and Kill. Details of the scenario can be found on this post.

Essentially players have to have a command unit adjacent to a Frondulan colony during the initiative phase. They then roll on a table and good things, victory points, or bad things, units die, can happen.

Neo-Soviets

Space Marines

This is a 1000 point game with appearances from Kraytonians, Space Marines, Andrayadans, Neo-Soviets, Orbital Combine and Hunter-Scavengers in the guide of Nazi Nomads.

Nazi Nomads

Andrayadans

I couldn't find any pictures of the Kraytonians or Orbital Combine. The Krays because their force lost a unit through Frondulan displeasure and when you only have two units in the force then that makes quite a dent. We had quite a laugh at that one. The Oribital Combine were painted black and spent the game hiding in a wood

The Space Marines and Neo-Soviets formed an unholy alliance and forced the Nazi Nomads to attack them. I have no idea who won this game but that's the beauty of Bootcamp - it's not the winning - it's the taking apart that counts.

That was it for Saturday - the next post covers Sunday's mini-campaign - A Stargate Too Far